Let me begin by saying yes I am a Saints fan and have been since 1977. However the current controversy is NOT why I have given up on football, it is just the trigger, the gun has been loading for some time.

When I was a kid I watched football and was amazed at people like Butkus and Curtis. These men hit people so hard they were SCARED of getting hit again. Yet when they were spoken to these were software spoken men that just played the game the best they could. Back then we had running backs that ran over people not through them, men like Otis and van Eeghen who made their thousand yard seasons by bashing through the defenders, not running around them.

Today if a defensive player hits a player really hard he risks some kind of penalty and fine. A running back that actually tried to run over the defender, put his head down and rammed through then would likely get some kind of penalty laid on him. The game has been wimpified from were it was all those years ago.

Now we are told that giving a player a bonus for doing his job well is wrong. Spend some time reading the material and look between the lines. I am not talking about getting money to injure a player, that is wrong and we all know it. However what is wrong with giving the player that gets the first interception of the game a bonus? Or what about the one that first sacks the QB? Why is it wrong to give a reward for doing the job they are paid to do well?

We have taken a great game and destroyed it. The players wear more protection than ever and getting hit now carries a penalty. We have turned one of the last sports were a man could truly let the testosterone flow and be a man into another wimpified game. We might as well call it baseball and be done.

What it gets better the above post is 80% of what I said in a post on NFL.com, I was actually a bit less aggravated then and was more polite. The post was not allowed for inappropriate and offensive language. The wimmpififcation of the NFL, as I said.

So color me done. We have taken one of the great American sports and turned it into slow pitch softball compared to what it was. We pay some kid a million dollars for showing up to a game without a single play being run and yet we call it bad when we want to give a player a $100 for getting the first interception of the game, or making the first sack.

I posted this rant here because at least here I am still free to talk like a man and express an man's opinions.

The difference from what I've been seeing is that the bonus money is if they made the player on the other team get shaken for an injury time-out or taken off the field. I think that's wrong. It'd be like basketball if they let in a bench player that averages less than 5 minutes a game to purposefully go in and do a hard foul against the other team's best player to take him out of the game. It's unsportsmanlike and takes the real aspect of the sport out of the game. Any physicality is a bonus, but to a certain extent.

Now, incentives for sacks, interceptions, blocked kicks, hard tackles, etc. I'm all for that. The intent with the Saints incentives, however, was for hitting a player so hard it caused an injury of some sort.

My high school football team had incentives (not money, of course, but stripes on the helmet or just taking stats) for things like tackling someone so hard people could hear it. Not the intent to injure the other player, but that the tackle was so noticeable that it would get the other team more reluctant to run plays that way, thus limiting their offensive plays to the other side of the field (or if they did run plays that way, the actual players might be a little bit more scared). Another good incentive for offense was gaining yards after being hit. Most players can run through a hole or catch a pass, but what makes players special is the ability to gain extra yardage after getting hit.

Anyways, I understand where you're coming from, Ed, but I think protection of players takes precedence over the intent of taking out players on the other team. I mean, they still allow tackling of catches while it's being made, and that isn't taken out. When receivers catch the ball every time for 4-5 yards for short gains but get hit while catching it, it affects them for the next catch. I saw it during the Super Bowl. The Giants did a good job doing that to stop those quick turnout passes over the middle, and that effectively stopped the Pats passing game (and you ended up seeing a bunch of dropped passes that receivers normally catch). Imo, that's different than what the Saints incentives were, which was to give bonus money only if they injured the player while doing that. I mean, can you imagine if they still let players take out a kicker's leg after a kick? There goes there kicker.

Otherwise, let's just bring back the Gladiator arenas and forget about sports.

Football used to be played without Helmets and then leather ones without face masks. The modern game is played with athletes who are bigger and faster now. I understand the concern over injury but it goes without saying if you want to play pro sports you might get injured. It's part of he game. If you don't want to get hurt, don't play the game. These
Silly rules protecting quarterbacks and now defenseless recovers and kickoff changes is making the game lose its appeal. I also don't get all the singing and dancing at e halftime shows. It's all about
Marketing and trying to appeal to those who don't quite like football or understand it, to persuade them to start watching.

Most sports came from wanting to show off how strong you were and therefore how good of a warrior you were I'm assuming.

Yeah, but there's a difference between a "sport" and a "fight". Even most martial arts fighting is a "sport" these days. Nothing is completely no-hold-barred unless it's underground. It's a mark of the civilization. I don't think they'll ever bring back the Gladiatorial games. Most people don't want to watch people tear eyes out of other people's sockets or bite people's necks off. There's no need for warriors or brutality to get excitement from a crowd these days.

Football used to be played without Helmets and then leather ones without face masks. The modern game is played with athletes who are bigger and faster now. I understand the concern over injury but it goes without saying if you want to play pro sports you might get injured. It's part of he game. If you don't want to get hurt, don't play the game. TheseSilly rules protecting quarterbacks and now defenseless recovers and kickoff changes is making the game lose its appeal. I also don't get all the singing and dancing at e halftime shows. It's all aboutMarketing and trying to appeal to those who don't quite like football or understand it, to persuade them to start watching.

I believe it is ruining the sport.

Kids used to scratch, bite, and gouge other players in dog piles in high school. One kid used to try and break other people's fingers. Those were things that were just done in the name of the sport because other players had done it in the past. You're saying there should be no rule against that?

The reason I stopped wrestling in high school is because every-time I went to qualify for state, you'd have wrestlers wearing stinky ass jerseys that were never washed that reeked of body odor, was grimy, and some people wiped their ass with it on the outside of their chests, too. They should have made a rule against things of that sort. What the hell type of fun is that?

I think that's wrong. It'd be like basketball if they let in a bench player that averages less than 5 minutes a game to purposefully go in and do a hard foul against the other team's best player to take him out of the game.

You do know that this type of play exists in all sports right, including basketball, hockey, even racing; this type of &nbsp;player is referred to as an enforcer.

Now, incentives for sacks, interceptions, blocked kicks, hard tackles, etc. I'm all for that. The intent with the Saints incentives, however, was for hitting a player so hard it caused an injury of some sort.

I understand the allegation but look at the rules, while we are looking at a worst case scenario and BTW again this is not about one team, they all do it, it has brought to light the fact that the rules stop incentive for just aggressive play.

The reason I stopped wrestling in high school is because every-time I went to qualify for state, you'd have wrestlers wearing stinky butt jerseys that were never washed that reeked of body odor, was grimy, and some people wiped their butt with it on the outside of their chests, too. They should have made a rule against things of that sort. What the hell type of fun is that?

A person can win a tournament, but he'll never get rid of the embarrassment.

Edited by CowKing, 06 March 2012 - 07:50 AM.

CPU: (Intel)q9450@3.36GHz|1.4vPower Supply: (Antec)BP550|550wGFX Card: (PNY)GTX 460|800-1600-4000 biggest GTX 460 dud OCerMotherboard: (Gigabyte)P35-DS3R |P35|Memory: (Mushkin) Redline 2x2GB DDR2 1000|1050MHz 5-5-5-12|Ayn Rand is the author for people who want to act like complete douche-bags, but don't have the balls to just admit that they are douche-bags."There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

Kids used to scratch, bite, and gouge other players in dog piles in high school. One kid used to try and break other people's fingers. Those were things that were just done in the name of the sport because other players had done it in the past. You're saying there should be no rule against that?

The reason I stopped wrestling in high school is because every-time I went to qualify for state, you'd have wrestlers wearing stinky butt jerseys that were never washed that reeked of body odor, was grimy, and some people wiped their butt with it on the outside of their chests, too. They should have made a rule against things of that sort. What the hell type of fun is that?

The players govern that sort of thing. Like in baseball in the national league a pitcher might think twice about sending some chin music knowing he eventually will have to come to bat that game.

The same wih his so called bounty. I a player wants to take someone out on purpose I guarantee you he will h e it coming back to him sooner or later